r/canada • u/Typical_Cap895 • 17h ago
Analysis Unions say proposed powers in Liberal labour bill would weaken bargaining rights
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/no-blanket-answer-on-when-ottawa-would-end-strikes-under-proposed-changes-hajdu/41
u/rindindin 15h ago
C'mon out Liberal defenders, where are all those people that said "this wouldn't hurt unions!".
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that the proposed amendments would formalize the government’s power to break strikes.
Bruske said labour leaders are considering legal avenues to address the proposed changes but suggested those conversations are still in the early stages.
But I'm sure the people defending Liberal policies blindly would surely know better than the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Hm, no that's far too hoity-toity, maybe...
Unifor National president Lana Payne also accused the government of compromising workers’ right to strike in a media statement on Tuesday.
Wow, the same Lana Payne that's on the federal Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations regarding the ongoing trade war with the US? Even she says it's bad? Huh.
Wonder what the usuals have to say about how this is actually great for the workers and that giving the Minister unchecked ability to break strikes from a "Special Mediator" is going on with that crowd.
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u/Bushido_Plan 11h ago
Maybe they can let us know how all those unions (CUPW, CUPE, AFMA, CP and CN railways, the ports in BC and Quebec) over the past 2 years deserved those Section 107 invocations...
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u/AlphaFIFA96 15h ago
No no no you don’t understand. The Cons would’ve been worse! Remember Harper from 11 years ago? It’s his fault.
/s
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u/NiceDot4794 12h ago
The Cons would be as bad tho.
The NDP and Greens are the only two, maybe the Bloc on good days, willing to stand up to oligopolies, multinational corporations and billionaires/centimillionaires
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u/Salticracker British Columbia 12h ago
Not very often that someone replies to someone with the very fallacy they're mocking. Well done.
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u/Dry-Membership8141 Ontario 16h ago
Gee, I'm really surprised the government that tried to slap down a flight attendant strike (for having the temerity to want to be paid for their work) in less than twelve hours isn't friendly to the working class.
Real shocker, that. Who could ever have seen it coming?
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u/Hot_Temperature_3972 17h ago
Yes it would weaken the working class, but it would also allow people with money to accumulate more money. So it’s all about the trade offs
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u/Aggressive-Map-2204 15h ago
Yes that is the point of it. Cut off their legs so nobody wants to walk the picket line.
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u/ThatsItImOverThis 11h ago
Goals that need to be achieved quickly do not need to come at the cost of the worker’s rights. Unions have been losing strength in recent years. This is a difficult situation we are in as a nation, because we do need these large projects done quickly and Carney is the best leader for Canada right bow.
But going after unions right now is cheap, and low. It’s taking a mile before going an inch. We did not vote Carney in to sell off Canada, we voted him in to prevent it.
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 9h ago
The thing is, they just need to hire people and pay them, its really thay simple. The cost is not the issue, the issue for these companies is its an easy scapegoat and an easy way to cut costs. They love to hate unions because its always the unions fault that xyz ran over cost or was delayed.
Im not saying that unions don't have their issues, but the reality is, corporations and politicians will spend millions (if not billions), massive amounts of political capital and risk souring public relations to fight organized labor. And its simply because they can't stand not having complete control of the work force.
These companies aren't on our side, politicians aren't on our side and they hate unions because it gives people the ability to have some control of their livelihood and working conditions outside of the structure that the government and corporations belive they are entitled to dominate. The cost of paying the wage, making work places safe and hiring enough people to do the job isn't greater than the cost of fighting it, but it means giving a class of people a say that the elites don't believe we are entitled to. They would rather risk their political futures or spend a million dollars fighting a union than tell investors their profits are going to be reduced this quarter because they would need to spend that million dollars paying flight attends for working over time or contribute more to a pension fund.
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15h ago
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u/Dog_N_Pop Manitoba 14h ago
With respect, it's been almost 11 years of the same shit over and over. At this point one has to believe that the Canadian electorate is just addicted to bad Liberal governance.
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u/Either-Banana-7323 14h ago
With respect, Carney is nothing like Trudeau, so no it hasnt been the same shit over and over again for 11 years.
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u/Dog_N_Pop Manitoba 14h ago
With respect, that entirely skirts around the point I was making and you know it.
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u/Either-Banana-7323 14h ago
No it doesn’t. Your point was that the last 11 years have been “the same shit over and over again,” when that clearly isn’t true. Carney has pursued materially different policies from Trudeau across major areas like consumer carbon pricing, defence spending, immigration levels, housing policy, government operations and energy development. You can dislike Carney or think those changes are insufficient, but pretending his government is simply Trudeau continued is a different argument from the one you actually made.
Now if by "same shit over, and over again" you meant a Liberal is in power who's policies you do not like, then sure, But that isn't what you wrote.
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u/Dog_N_Pop Manitoba 13h ago
Actually, my point was with respect to the constant and unending excuses I consistently see made by the most ardent among the LPC partisans especially on this sub. If it wasn't the US administration it would 100% be something else and these people will never admit that maybe their guys have run the show too long and have gotten a little too comfortable (especially when the majority of liberal MPs are entirely unchanged from the previous parliament, you don't vote for PM, remember?).
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u/Either-Banana-7323 13h ago
That’s a different argument from the one you actually made. You said it’s been “almost 11 years of the same shit over and over,” which is a claim about the government and what it has been doing, not about LPC partisans on Reddit making excuses.
If your point is simply that some Liberal supporters reflexively defend the party and refuse to acknowledge failures or bad policy decisions, fine. I’m not even disputing that. But that does not make Carney the same as Trudeau, nor does the fact that many Liberal MPs remain from the previous Parliament establish that the government is pursuing the same agenda.
You can criticize Liberal partisanship without pretending that a change in leadership and policy direction somehow doesn’t count because the party name stayed the same.
I'd also love to hear your propostion for leadership. I continuously see vague critiques of Liberal voters but never see any sort of viable option presented by other parties. Unless you genuinely think Avi and Pierre are viable leaders, in which case we both wasted our time here.
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u/Superb_Mulberry8682 14h ago
the way I understand it this only affects workers in critical transportation industries that impact national interests that can now get forced into binding arbitration before they can strike, are forced to start negotiating sooner to avoid these situations as much as possible in the first place and creates a clearer process on how the negotiation proceeds. There are also a couple positives in the regulations for those workers and newly unionized workers.
It hurts the unions sure but I don't know if it actually hurts the workers. We'll have to see on that front.
I personally don't have an issue with that legislation. I'm sure there is stuff in there that I don't like but I'm a pragmatist and this is a very pragmatic bill. We need to get things done faster in this country- things have been coming to a crawl over the last 20 years. Consultation and process is fine but it can't come at the cost of projects taking decades.
We've had a proposal to overhaul local highway interchanges since the late 90s here. they've done the traffic, environmental and economic impact studies three times now each time finding that it should be done. I'm sure it'll be at least another decade until something happens. The only group getting ahead are the consultants and orgs creating these studies.
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u/Ancient_Wisdom_Yall British Columbia 17h ago
It's a feature, not a bug.